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Being a web developer is easy in comparison to being an entrepreneur. I’m able to build applications, some take time, but I’m capable of turning an idea into a working service or product. Having help expedites the process, but I’m capable of doing small projects by myself. However, wearing my entrepreneurial hat has been more challenging than developing apps.

Misconceptions about being an Entrepreneur

There is a difference between being a business owner and being an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur has to be able to wear many hats and to have an understanding of software development is only one of them.

Many people picture the entrepreneur life as being glamorous full of excitement and riches, but that is seldom the case. Being an entrepreneur is a tough learning journey.

What lesson did I learn?

I am lucky and grateful that Edifica’s investors believed I had the potential to develop Edifica’s web application with their help. We set out to develop the product and we did a great job doing so. After several months into the development process, we finally had a working application and decided to start marketing.

Soon after we realized we had messed up. We should have started marketing at the same time we started developing the application, maybe even sooner. By the time we were done developing the initial offering, we did not have a community and we didn’t have constant traffic to our site. That was a big problem.

Suggestion

If you are currently working on a product and you are planning to make it available to the public, I recommend that you start letting people know about your product right away. You should keep your ears open and listen to any feedback you might get and take that feedback into consideration while the product is still under development. On Edifica’s case, we started gathering feedback after we had a working product. If we had started spreading the word during the development phase, we could have made better decisions about the product’s features. Planning your product’s marketing early on is crucial.